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Democrats Hoping for Gains in Governorships

This story from Reuters, seems to indicate that Dems are hoping make some big gains in the upcoming governors’ races. Following Tim Kaine’s example (see below) they might. Further, as the story notes, many of the places where these upsets are likely to occur (such as California) are blue or purple states where the Republican is not viewed as strong. As the National Democratic Party implodes, it will be interesting to watch if these state races are successful for the Dems. I doubt whether anything gleaned from these races can translate into success for the Dems in 2008. But winning a majority of state executive offices cannot be a bad thing for their party. Republicans will have to step up their game on the state and local level--as Ken Blackwell is doing--if they want to continue to hold on to Congress.

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The national story is Kaine’s successful run as a Democratic Candidate in a red state. The real story is an absolute meltdown and failure by the Republican candidate, Kilgore. Although there was great sound and fury (at least in the ads) during the race, when I went into the voting booth, I had absolutely no idea what Mr. Kilgore stood for or, really, if he had any programs as an aspiring governor. Kaine didn’t do much better, but he had the killer response to Kilgore’s death penalty ad, which backfired severely. I voted for Kilgore, but couldn’t really tell you why he would be the better candidate.

Virginia now has the second Dem governor in a row. Warner ran on not increasing taxes and then did his best to get tax increases. He succeeded very well in saving the state from deficits. He succeeded so well that the deficit disappeared before the tax increases went into affect. Faced with the terrible burden of a Billion dollar surplus, Mr. Kaine’s first order of business was to push for new tax increases, including a 5% sales tax on gasoline. The real Kaine story is that we have been had and we Virginian’s asked for it.


The stupidity of voters should never be underestimated.

This is one of the main reasons why the Democratic party can never, ever be counted out. The believe in something-for-nothing is deeply engrained in modern man. The Democrats are the party of unreality on both domestic and foreign policy, and there will always be a large market for this.

Certainly, winning a majority of governorships "cannot be a bad thing" for the Democrats. But it would be a bad thing for America. It is a mistake to draw bright lines between the national Democratic party and the Democratic party on the state level. Sure, their governors, gubernatorial candidates, and state legislators don’t spew the same kind of hatred at Bush -- but they aren’t in Washington or focused on federal issues.

Ken Salazar, the "moderate" attorney general of Colorado, is now the foul-mouthed, reliably liberal Senator who, among other things, blasted Clarence Thomas as "an abomination." And many other cases of this could be cited.

I’ll get interested in the prospects for a "moderate" Democratic party when the Tim Kaines of this world forthrightly condemn the lunatic hate speech -- "I hate the Republicans," etc. and the anti-American, anti-military defeatism of the Howard Deans.

Until then, we’re better off not trying to read tea leaves.

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